Marianne D’Emidio-Caston, PhD, began her teaching career in Spain as the co-founder of a small progressive school serving multi-national students. Upon returning to the United States, she completed her BA at Antioch University Santa Barbara, where she developed and implemented a plan for a private Arts in Education Junior High School based on Montessori’s principles for educating adolescents.

Completing more than 20 years as a teacher and administrator in both public and private schools, Marianne earned a Masters in Education studying Montessori Education and a second Masters in Educational Policy and Administration at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1990, she received her doctorate in Confluent Education at UCSB.

She became a full-time instructor in the UCSB teacher education program, achieving the position of Coordinator of the Multiple Subject Credential Program, where she worked for almost 10 years. Marianne’s central scholarship focus is on the intersection of the affective and cognitive domains in learners, including the development of confident mathematical understanding, teacher candidates’ identity construction, and theory of practice and pedagogy to support resilience in youth.

She has been a leader in the Confluent Education SIG at AERA, the Arts SIG at CCTE and has served on the editorial board of Teacher Education Quarterly. Her book, “Resilience Education,” co-authored with Joel H. Brown and Bonnie Benard, was published in 2001 by Corwin Press. Marianne has been the Director of Teacher Education and Chair for the Graduate Education and Credential Programs at AUSB since 2000.